1. Technical Field
The present invention relates in general to data processing systems and in particular to cataloging hardware of a data processing system. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to a system, method and computer program product for generic and flexible collection of a hardware data image.
2. Description of the Related Art
Within data processing systems, ascertaining hardware conditions in response to system events can prove tremendously useful, both in the design and engineering process and during deployment. Prior-art methods have generally relegated the task of ascertaining system hardware conditions to a firmware-based system dump process. Consequently, system dump instructions are typically hard-coded in ROM, together with the firmware configuration and startup routines. Because the system dump instructions are hard-coded in ROM, the system dump instructions can not typically be modified in response to hardware configuration changes.
The current state of the prior art increases the difficulty of updating a data processing system when the hardware configuration is changed, due to the need to update firmware that is hard-coded into ROM. Additionally, the lists of configuration change requests provided by independent hardware component manufacturers do not include checks for side-effects of requested hardware modifications and associated routine calls. System changes late in the design process or after production has begun are thereby rendered impractical.